New figures released by Hitwise UK, the comparative online measurement tool, confirm CricInfo’s dominance of the UK online cricket market. As the new English season begins, the figures for March 2002 show that CricInfo recorded 78.3% of all page views on cricket sites by UK internet users.

According to Hitwise, CricInfo has almost 10 times the UK traffic market share of its closest competitor, Cricket365 (8.34%). CricInfo also eclipses the recently launched Wisden.com which registered just 1.11% of pages viewed on cricket sites in March.

The pattern is similar in terms of site visits. CricInfo.com is top of the table with 62.61% share, ahead of Cricket365 (14.42%), Cricket4.com (4.81%) and Wisden.com (1.87%).

Alex Chamberlen, CricInfo’s Director of Sales, said that ‘These figures show that there is no doubt that advertisers wanting to reach the valuable online cricket audience need to have a presence on CricInfo. With tours this summer from India and Sri Lanka, and major events elsewhere in the world during the English season, we are anticipating massive traffic. Demand from advertisers is already extremely high, which bodes well for a fantastic summer.’

CricInfo has already signed major advertising and sponsorship deals with bet365, Alpha Telecom, Nokia, and Fantasy Cricket Club. Further major deals will be announced in the coming weeks.

CricInfo has also revealed a new look for its homepage for the new season. CricInfo’s five official county sites – Hampshire, Somerset, Glamorgan, Gloucestershire and Leicestershire – have all had a winter makeover and have been recording record levels of traffic in the pre-season period.

CricInfo will be providing its usual mix of news and live ball-by-ball scorecards from county and international cricket this summer, as well as comprehensive coverage of international cricket from around the world. The site regularly records more than 100 million page views per month.

For further information, please contact:

Andrew Hall, Head of UK Ventures, CricInfo Ltd.
Tel: 07968 157722
Email: andrew.hall@cricinfo.com